Economic Governance

photo by Travel Aficionado (creative commons license)

Economic Governance

The impacts of the global financial crisis are still reverberating around the world. It is crucial to critically analyze global financial and economic governance arrangements and identify measures which can avert future crises and protect and serve society and ecology.

Our Economic Governance Program focuses on democratizing governance structures to ensure that the international financial institutions and bodies, such as the G20, are representative and accountable. It also works on democratizing policy-making in the areas of finance, economics and trade to ensure that the financial system serves “real economies” in environmentally-sustainable ways that respect the rights of poor and vulnerable groups and women.

We support the engagement of citizen’s groups in developing countries in both areas, including through the encouragement of public education and capacity-building.

For more information, please contact Nancy Alexander at Nancy.Alexander[at]us.boell.org

Group of 20

G20 Update

May 15, 2013 - The May 2013 G20 Update (EN) describes the evolving domestic political climate in Russia, particularly the crack-down on independent civil society organizations; highlights key features of the G20's new "Financing for Investment" initiative, especially the promotion of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in infrastructure; and compares the agendas for the G8 Summit (June 2013) and the G20 Summit (September 2013). more»

Report

Missing Women: The G20, Gender Equality and Global Economic Governance

- March 13, 2013 - The policy priorities of the G20 have profound gender implications, although the G20 rarely recognizes this fact. This report explores the possibilities for gender bias in the G20's policies, including those related to: fiscal and monetary priorities, employment, social protection, and development. James Heintz - University of Massachusetts, Amherst more»

Policy Paper

Commentary on the report "Mapping G20 Decisions Implementation"

- February 1, 2013 - How should G20 Decisions be Assessed? This question is answered by a December 2012 report entitled, “Mapping G20 Decisions Implementation: How G20 is delivering on the decisions made” by scholars at the University of Toronto and the Higher School of Economics (Moscow). This "commentary" questions the methodology of the report and suggests alternatives. Nancy Alexander, Heinrich Boell Foundation, and Aldo Caliari, Center of Concern more»

Institutions

Policy Paper

World Bank’s “Inclusive Green Growth” (IGG) Report – A Brief Assessment

May 29, 2012 - The World Bank's May 2012 volume on "Inclusive Green Growth" has some positive solutions to offer, but falls short in several crucial ways: the lack of emphasis on poverty reduction, equality and human rights; an uncritical regard for market mechanisms to govern asset markets, and a view of infrastructure as the “heart of green growth,” among other things. Liane Schalatek and Nancy Alexander more»

Policy Paper

Submission to the 2012 Earth Summit Outcome Document ‘Zero Draft’

- November 16, 2011 - The 2012 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is scheduled for June 20-22, 2012 – right "on the heels" of the Mexican G20 Summit on June 18-19, 2012. Will the G20 Summit support or undermine the goals of the 2012 Earth Summit? This paper describes the risk that, unless the G20 changes its orientation, it could undermine hopes for positive outcomes at the 2012 Summit. Nancy Alexander and Peter Riggs more»

Article

The Position of IMF Managing Director

- July 12, 2011 - Christine Lagarde is the first woman to head the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Undoubtedly, this is a step forward in the right direction, and would have been difficult to imagine only a few years ago. Barbara Unmüßig and Rainer Falk more»

Macro-Economics & Gender

report

The Future We Want. A Feminist Perspective

January 26, 2012 - The multiple crises – the financial crash, hunger, climate change and resource scarcity – demonstrate emphatically that neoliberal market globalization cannot fulfill its promises: namely to bring about the optimal allocation of resources on the entire planet and thus be a win-win game for all. Christa Wichterich more»

Needed: A True World Bank Development Report on Gender Equality

- March 21, 2011 - It is certainly laudable that gender equality gets the serious consideration it deserves in the current international development discourse, and having a WDR exclusively focused on gender equality gives it yet another ‘stamp of approval’ of being an intrinsic development issue. Too bad, that the World Bank is not using this occasion to accompany the academic exercise internally with a serious reflection and reconsideration of the Bank’s own understanding of and approach to gender equality. Liane Schalatek more»

Policy Paper

Women's Leadership: Pressing for Real Change in Finance and Sustainable Development

- October 22, 2010 - On October 22, Nancy Alexander spoke at the Global Capital Forum of the Korean Women's Development Institute about the importance of women's leadership in achieving sustainable development. Her paper appears here. Nancy Alexander more»

Sustainable Agriculture & Trade

Report

Wheel of Life - Food, Climate, Human Rights, and the Economy

September 15, 2011 - The links between climate change and industrial agriculture create a nexus of crises—food insecurity, natural resource depletion and degradation, as well as human rights violations and inequities. This report unravels the interrelated causes of and effects on these issues. Debbie Barker more»

Waste water (dark areas in the center of the picture) from hog farm running off from the "spray field" (green field) into nearby creeks in eastern North Carolina. Picture by Anna Milena Jurca

Article

Our Daily Meat

- March 15, 2011 -

Americans consumed 275lb of meat in 2010. That is more than 341 grams each day. Most Americans do not know - or care to know - where their daily meat comes from. The truth is: in the United States, 79% of pigs are raised on farms with 2,000 pigs or more. These factory farms promised better employment, affordable food for everybody and better, more efficient farming practices. They delivered the opposite.

Anna Milena Jurca and Lisa Grau more»

Film

This Land is Our Land

- December 1, 2010 - For more than three decades, transnational corporations have been busy buying up what used to be known as the commons -- everything from our forests and our oceans to our broadcast airwaves and our most important intellectual and cultural works. more»